Happy Valentine's Professor
by mokamon
Summary: Another Valentine's day has come to Iselia. The love in the air is sweet to everyone...except for a certain teacher that is...


She wouldn't think about it. It wasn't of any importance. It was just another day on another month on another year that she had lived. The day came and went just like every other holiday.

Of course, it wasn't as large as the Angel Festival since all families got together and shared gifts. Although, it was a bit more...enjoyed then the some what sacrilegious day of Hallows Eve.

Having helped taught the religion to the children of the village she was slightly unnerved by the thought of demonic angels coming from Niflheim in search of mana in exchange for people keeping their lives. Of course the children were never taught that though; they only knew it as asking neighbours for candy, dressed up in costumes. She remembered sewing a Katz outfit for her brother a few years ago - he had insisted on it. Naturally, after that she had been bothered to create one for her brother's best friend as well... Making a swordsman outfit was much easier then she thought.

But, to her...annoyance, she would not be making any Katz, Swordsmen, or helping in making a certain Chosen's witch outfit this day.

That didn't mean she had to think about the day though.

How many years had it been? The last time someone of her age spoke those loving words to her? She vaguely remembered the one man she had strong feelings for. He was a wonderful man... Caring, handsome, strong, smart...

Yet cruel the moment he unearthed the truth of her blood.

The woman shook her head. Ugh, just thinking of the man made her sick. She needn't think of such things at that moment. She needed something to distract her from the voices and mana around her. Most the children were giggling and some were so flabbergasted all they could do was stutter. Small cards made of red or pink paper, that she helped to cut out, were passed around. Hearts of different sizes and colours decorated the room from ceiling to floor; each wall wasn't the comforting wood-brown she had gotten accustomed to but the colour of the paper hearts.

The mana in the air was light, but smothering to her. All she could feel was the happiness and loving emotions throughout the entire village; even her own brother! She watched him with a hand over her eyes as a girl, one he'd been talking to a great deal as of late, with her brown hair tied up in a pink ribbon gave him a paper heart. It had lace around it, almost as if she had gotten it from the village council who made the decorations for all the holidays for around the small town. The boy's face grew red, making it stand out from his body even more then his silver hair.

Raine smiled as she watched her little brother try and give the girl the present he made for her in return. It was a glass heart he had made from hours of work at the beach. Even though it took him a long time, Raine was just happy he knew a spell now; Genis was so proud of himself.

The girl's face light up in happiness, as did her little brother's. The girl, Flair, giggled in happiness as she took the heart from her brother, holding it close to her chest with one hand and taking his hand in her other.

Normally, Raine would have gone and stopped this from happening to her brother. She didn't want Genis to become broken because of a girl.

It was just a wonderful thing that Flair's family was not hateful towards half-elves.

Wanting to not ponder over her brother's possible future with the brunette girl, Raine went back to marking the test she had given the class that day. In spite of herself, it was a small history test about the holidays over the years. When they started, why they started, how they were celebrated, who was involved in the making of each holiday. Evidently, in a test about holidays she had to include today's holiday. She wasn't exactly pleased about it, but the children did need to know about today's history...

She never particularly liked this holiday. All the love going around town made her...uneasy. Like a too sweet candy; it tastes good for a moment but then makes you ill with all the excess sugar. Ever since she and Genis had come to Iselia, she would wake extra early to avoid the couples waking hand-in-hand around the sometimes snow covered town on this holiday. This year was one of those years were it had snowed. It was much too cold for the children to play outside so they had all stayed in at lunch, sitting by the fire place that Genis kept going, wrapped up in their jackets and drinking cocoa one of the mother's brought in for the cold day.

Raine looked over at the clock. It was almost three. She felt as though the mana was suffocating her while teaching the children; all the emotions in the air was causing a shift in the mana. Out of character, she let them out early, a whole fifteen minutes to be exact. Needless to say the students were surprised. A few had stayed behind, saying it was warmer in the school then at home. The teacher didn't mind, she loved being around her students. In total, there were fifteen students still left in her class. Her brother and his newly proclaimed love were sitting together on the counter - a very rare thing Raine would let them do - taking to each other. Colette was in the back, trying to pin up even MORE hearts with the help of a red haired boy, Andrew, whom had given her a special heart with wings. Other students were still decorating hearts around the walls and making last minute ones.

One of her other favorite students - for his personality, not work ethics - the one she knew would stay at school longer then any of them to avoid the cold walk home, was sitting at his desk. Lloyd had turned his chair around so that he was facing the back wall instead of her desk. His small, growing body was hunched over something, working quickly on whatever it was he was doing. Raine had tried to find out what it was he was doing, but was stopped by a look from Genis - making her sigh, shake her head and return to her desk. If Lloyd was doing something bad Genis would've let her known. She wasn't too concerned about the strange actions of the dwarven raised boy.

Not as much as one should worry when Lloyd Irving is the one in question, anyways.

Not wanting to fret over Lloyd's stranger actions, the silver haired young teacher went back to marking the tests. Most the answers students gave were correct. The all stated that the Angel festival was for the Goddess Martel's birthday, giving presents to each other was a way of thanking her for letting the people have ones they cared about. For today's, most the students wrote that an assembly of priests would help to marry the Chosen's spouse to the ones they really loved and to help marry the Chosen to whom they truly loved, annulling their marriage to one another and therefore insulting the Goddess for not allowing the holy lineage to continue. The man who had started the assembly was Valentine, giving the name for the day.

Although, one answer stood out to her. It wasn't anything what she had taught them, and normally she would have thought it had been a random answer he had put down just so the question wasn't blank. Re-reading the messy printing, Raine thought over the thoughts Lloyd had running through his mind as he wrote his answer.

'The mann who made Valintines Day was a grate persen. He let peepel who caired aboout eech othr be toogethr, insteed of makeing peepel who dun't evin kno each othr to be toogethr just foor Martel. I thik he thout she woud be hapyr that way sinc the peepel woud be with the 1s they luved.'

Although it was difficult to read the twelve year old's writing, she had had more then enough practice over the years to understand every word with just one read. His response made her think over what had been happening with the church. All these years, Chosen's had been forced to marry for sake of the holy lineage. No thought of their feelings were taken into account and no thought of the feelings of the person they were to marry were taken into account. It was just to keep the lineage going. No one had ever seen it as Lloyd had bluntly wrote it. Truth be told, most priests would stay at the temple on this day to stay away from the history of the family of the man whom tried to destroy the lineage.

The eighteen year old teacher looked over to the young Chosen. The blond was happily giggling to something Andrew had said, her face was blushing slightly with embarrassment. Would Colette be forced to marry someone if the oracle didn't come for her? Who would be the boy who was blessed by the Goddess herself and all the holy beings to be married to the truest angel that had ever lived? Raine pondered over the thought of Colette being forced into marriage. Although the young girl would never admit it to the priests, she most likely would've rather died going through the regeneration journey, then marry some unwilling man and have her child die later in life. In fact, Raine was one hundred percent certain of that fact. Yes, Colette was able to find the goodness in anyone, and everyone loved the girl for her personality - sometimes, Raine wondered if the villagers loved her for being Colette, or for being the Chosen, though – but Raine knew that deep down, Colette wouldn't be able to do such a thing to her chil.

If Colette wasn't given the oracle...could she handle being married to a possible stranger? One who may not love her, or only accept his fate simply because she was the Chosen? The teacher couldn't get the thought out of her head. She couldn't stop worrying over the future of the girl she saw as a daughter and sister so much that it made her actually furious with the Goddess for making such a girl go through a life of knowing she how, when and why she would die.

The 'elven' woman went back to marking the tests, blinking when she found Lloyd's still in her hand. She glanced over his response again and smiled. He was such an accepting boy. He really didn't care about who you were; as long as you were a nice person, he'd stay by you forever.

Once a traveler stopped by in the town for a few days, saying he wanted to visit the home of the Chosen. Everyone knew he was a half-elf as he had no fear and openly told everyone. Although Iselia wasn't a very discriminatory town, there still were those who never glanced at the man, keeping their children away from him. Being banned from the inn, Raine allowed him to stay with her and Genis, knowing he was a man true to his word and only wanting to see the Chosen. The moment Lloyd knew there was yet ANOTHER person who could use magic, he wouldn't leave the poor man alone. Lloyd was actually fascinated by the fact the man was part human and elf, thinking he was as a character from a book.

Raine almost had the urge to tell Lloyd of what she and Genis were.

...

Almost.

She sighed heavily. This was another reason she didn't particularly like this holiday. She thought too much about things that didn't really need to be thought about... Colette would receive the oracle on her birthday in a few years, and no one must ever know of Raine and Genis' blood.

...Maybe coming to the one village that was the most absorbed in this particular holiday wasn't the best idea for Raine's psychological well-being. She was always thinking about more trivial concepts then she was used to - and all to forget the fact she was basically a mother... a single mother. No, Raine was not the type of woman who would go around town looking for a man to wed just so she wouldn't be alone. She had more common sense, decency, and respect for herself as well as her brother. She wouldn't want to embarrass him by becoming the town's nympho either. Besides, she was much too young as well as the fact she couldn't really say much around any attractive man.

The eighteen year old teacher scanned the class room again to find it almost empty save for her favorite students and two of their Valentine's. How long had she let her mind wonder? To not even notice the other children leave made her feel a bit uncouth for not seeing them out...

The remaining children were at the class room door, fastening their jackets and snow boots tighter. She stood from her desk and stretched for a moment. This time she would say farewell to her students. It, of course, had nothing to do with the fact that these were her favorites, no of course not.

Raine went with her students to the front door of the school house with a smile on her face. Genis told her how they were all going to roam around the village, maybe make a snowman or two. They were also planning on having a little party and were going to get supplies from the store. Raine - all though reluctant to allow so since she was tired of all the love in the air - told the children they could hold the party at their home, as long as there weren't too many people.

With their boots tied up tightly and jackets buttoned up properly they went off with an even happier then before air around them, they went for the door together, looking forward to the party. Before running off together for the store, Raine held Genis back a moment, letting him know she would be late coming home since she had to finish marking the tests. She was so glad she could trust her little brother in having people over without her home.

The young mage nodded, telling her he knew what to do and what not to. Besides, there wasn't much a child could do to get into trouble around Iselia in the first place.

His last statement threw Raine for a moment before she realized he was only teasing. She let him off, watching him run to his three classmates that were wai-

Raine frowned. Wait a moment...there were only the four of them; Genis, Flair, Andrew, and Colette...

Where had Lloyd gone to?

She could have sworn he was with them, putting his thicker-then-normal red jacket on. Had he gone back into class when she was talking to Genis?

Curious, and needing to go finish grading tests in the first place, the silver haired woman hurried back to the class, hoping not to find Lloyd doing anything to her classroom...

She stepped back into the classroom to see Lloyd placing something on her desk. She called to him, asking what he was doing and he jumped.

The boy quickly put what he was going to put on her desk behind his back and denied he had been doing anything; saying all those papers she was grading were getting to her.

Raine raised an eyebrow at the boy. She walked up to him, glad she was still taller then him - he was rather tall for his age - and stared down at him for a while.

The brunette fidgeted for a moment, looming around the room. He declared he had to go home and started for the door, turning around so Raine was unable to see behind his back.

But, the teacher was quicker. She rushed to him again, catching him off guard as she blocked his only way out. Using her 'teacher voice', she told him to show her what the item he was about to place on her desk.

Lloyd's face flushed. He looked anywhere but at her eyes as he slowly dropped his hands from his back. With a shaking hand, he held up his hand to sho-

It was a red paper heart card. The cut out was messy, and uneven, but surprisingly well done for Lloyd himself. On the front of the card was the messy printing he wrote, saying 'To my Valentine'. Rain was stunned for a few moments. At first she was just surprised he had spelt 'Valentine' correctly, and then she realized that he had given the card to her. She...was his Valentine?

Lloyd spoke in jumbled words, as though he were trying to give an excuse as to why his homework wasn't completed. He told her how pretty and kind she was, and how lucky Genis was to have her as a sister.

Raine was in shock. Her...? Pretty...? And...nice? But...all the kids would complain about how rough she was with them, never giving them a break on their studies...

Lloyd kept going on; still stuttering to the point Raine almost couldn't understand him. He told her how much of a wonderful teacher she was, always doing her best to make sure he was at least passing school. He admired her so much, he wanted to show her what she meant to him...

A red clothed finger pointed at the card Raine still held in her hand. He told her to open it, quietly of course. His face was beat red, but she could tell he really wanted her to read what was inside, no matter how silly he thought it was.

With a sad smile, Raine opened the card, surprised even more at the little drawings all around the page. There were wings - Lloyd was always drawing those - hearts, an angel here and there. In the middle of it all was a note, written in near perfect printing that must have taken the usually messy writer a long period to do.

'If you live to be 100 I hope to live to 100 minus one day, that way I'll never live a day without you.

Happy Valentine's Day,

Professor Raine.

Love Lloyd.'

Raine brought a hand to her mouth, as tears started to form at her eyes.

Lloyd, taking her actions as bad, started to apologize for what he had done. He told her he thought girls liked that kind of stuff! He kept apologizing, seeming like a clone of Colette.

Raine laughed, wiping a tear away. She told him she wasn't upset; just really happy. She thanked him, holding him in a hug.

The teacher wasn't able to find someone who loved her as much as she wished for one to. The days she saw couples together made her a little lonely. The fact that she was a half-elf made her even more worried about ever finding love in her future. She was a young woman, broken by the fact the only man she had ever physically shown she loved tore her apart on this holiday...she was horrified of this day.

Although, now she was sure that if Lloyd was around, it didn't matter if she was half-elven, or almost a single mother, or even his teacher. She felt loved.

"Happy Valentine's day... R-Raine..."


End file.
